GBH News: The Long View: Boston’s White Working-Class Voters In Decline, Strength Of White Progressives Rising
Originally published October 13, 2021 | GBH News
The traffic circle in front of the Holy Name church in West Roxbury is home to a revered status in Boston politics. Four precincts in the high-voter turnout Ward 20 cast ballots in the parish hall on election day, and the circle at the intersection of Centre Street and West Roxbury Parkway has become a pilgrimage site for electoral candidates running citywide.
Last month, a little more than a week before the Sept. 14 preliminary election, the circle was split between campaign volunteers holding signs for at-large City Councilors Annissa Essaibi George and Michelle Wu, both of whom would advance to the Nov. 2 final in the mayoral election.
Their campaigns have come to symbolize the clash between Boston’s older and newer politics, with Essaibi George’s moderate platform resonating in the more conservative, predominantly white precincts in South Boston, Dorchester’s Neponset neighborhood and West Roxbury, while Wu’s progressive platform is finding appeal in liberal precincts in Jamaica Plain, Roslindale and the South End.